A Cliché Love

2

Tom and Tori made their way to the carnival, quickly getting over the tense conversation they had previously had. They were back to joking in no time, in classic Tom and Tori style.

"Okay, I'll buy the ride tickets, you go stand in line for funnel cake." Tom instructed Tori after seeing the line already wrapped around the building. Why would a LA carnival only have one funnel cake stand? Tom walked the opposite direction from Tori, trying to find the ticket booth. He's not sure why he volunteered to get the tickets at a place where he's never been before, in a city he just recently moved to. He stood on his tip toes trying to spot a flashing sign or something to point him in the right direction. He sighed before just picking a direction, which was the opposite direction of where he left Tori. He was in the middle of texting her to tell her he may be gone longer than expected when he dropped the phone out of his hands. He reached down to pick it up, not knowing that a guy who was passing had the same idea. The two men smacked heads while reaching for the phone.

"Dude, what the fuck?" Tom groaned as he grasped his head.

"I was just trying to help!" The guy said, rubbing his own head. "Remind me not to help cute strangers ever again." This made Tom's head spring up and look at the guy he hit heads with. Standing in front of Tom was one of the most handsome human beings he had ever seen. The stranger had soft, curly brown hair, with matching deep eyes. He had facial features that immediately brought a calmness to Tom when he looked at them.

"Cute you say?" Tom gave the stranger a sly smile, making the other guy blush slightly.

"Did I say cute? I meant uh cool, yeah ceeeewl. You must have just heard cute from the way I said it." He ran his hand through his curls while trying to find an excuse that sounds believable. "Anyway! I'm Eric. Who are you?"

"Tom. It's nice to meet you Eric. Sorry I smacked heads with you, I didn't know you were coming to help! I haven't really had a lot of nice experiences since I moved here, so I wasn't expecting it!" Saying this reminded him that his phone was still on the ground, making him bend down to retrieve it. He had three unread texts from Tori, which isn't unusual for him to have multiple unread texts.

"Where'd you move here from?"

"Boston."

"Tom from Boston, huh. Boston Tom! I've never met anybody from Boston before." Eric gave him another sweet smile, making Tom's insides churn. They stared into each other's eyes for a second, the noise of the carnival drowning out behind them. Tom's phone buzzing brought them back to reality, as Tori sent him another text message. He checked it this time to see that she sent him a picture of two funnel cakes with a caption that told him she was waiting for him. Eric couldn't help but look at Tom's phone, he couldn't help the expression on his face from dropping, but he quickly covered it up.

"You should probably get back to your girlfriend then, it seems like she's waiting on you. It was nice to meet you Tom." Eric started to walk away, but Tom grabbed his hand to stop him.

"Not my girlfriend, but my best friend. She was getting the funnel cake and I was getting the... SHIT! The tickets! Do you know where the ticket booth is?" Eric nodded before signaling that Tom should follow him, Tom's hand still around Eric's. They talked as they walked the short distance to the ticket booth, Tom had been heading the correct direction. As they got closer to the ticket counter, Eric dropped Tom's hand, which Tom didn't even realize was still entwined until he felt the emptiness.

"Eric! My boy! What's up? You need more tickets already?" Eric did some funky handshake with the cashier before turning towards Tom.

"Labib, my friend Tom needs to buy some tickets for himself and his friend- wait what was her name again?"

"Her name is Tori!"

"I'll hook you and your girl up Tom, any friend of Eric's is a friend of mine." Labib said as he handed over some tickets, making Tom reach towards his wallet. "On us dude, I hate this company and they don't need anymore money than they already have." Tom thanked him, and gave him a fist bump. Tom sent a quick text to Tori to let her know he finally has the tickets and will be coming back to her soon. Tom and Eric said goodbye to Labib and started to head back to the funnel cake building.

"You can hang out with Tori and I... if you want." Tom told Eric softly. The two of them were walking close to one another, their hands down by their sides, brushing together every once in a while.

"I should probably get back to my friends, Brandon has been blowing up my phone about where I am." Eric didn't sound too happy about returning to his own friends. "But, how about we meet up before the end of the night? We can go on a ride together, maybe during the fireworks?"

"I would like that a lot. Let me get your phone number so we know where to meet!" Tom handed off his phone.

"429 unread text messages?? Tom!! What are you doing with your life? We've got to fix this." Eric looked disgusted as he handed Tom back his phone. "You better not leave me unread when I tell you where to go."

"I will always read your texts, I promise you that Eric." Tom gave him a smile before texting the number Eric had just put in, that way it wasn't all on Tom to pick a meeting spot. "Do you want to come meet Tori?"

"I'll meet her later tonight! I'll see you later Tom." Eric grabbed Tom's hand to give it a squeeze before saying goodbye. Tom walked over to where he saw Tori sitting, one funnel cake in front of her and a grumpy look on her face.

"Tori!!"

"Tom." Tori did not reply with the excitement that Tom had. "You better have a good damn reasoning to why you made me wait for over 30 minutes. I know it did not take you that long to get tickets."

"Well, I did get us the tickets for free!" Tori's glare started to soften with the thought of saving money. "But, more importantly, I met a boy."

"YOU WHAT!?" Tom had Tori's full attention now.

"I'm really sorry I took so long Tor, but we ran into each other, like literally ran into each other, and then I felt like I could spend forever standing there with him. He wants to go on a ride with me under the fireworks!!! Tori, I got a boys phone number!!" Tom was nearly bursting with excitement as he spilled the news to his best friend.

"Tom!! I forgive you obviously. What's his name? Give me details!" Tom pulled out his phone to see Eric's contact, trying to figure out his last name.

"Well, his name is Eric, and he has the most adorable curly hair. And these gorgeous brown eyes that you could just get lost in." Tom sighed in adoration.